Our Matthew Worry

When it comes to Matthew, I'm the worrier parent.  It freaks me out a bit when Darren gets worried about Matthew.  For some time, I've been fretting about Matthew's lack of verbal speech, but it scared me a bit that now both Darren and I are worried that Matthew may not talk.  

Matthew had what we thought were a few words (mom and bye), but those vanished when he started concentrating on walking.  The sounds he was making have pretty much gone away too.  He does use signs (9 to date), and he does communicate with sound, but not really the sounds that make up words. Darren and I both commented this morning that there is a possibility that Matthew may not talk.  Goodness, that is scary.  Matthew may not talk.  

We are very happy that Matthew is using sign, and will be fine with him continuing to do so.  But it will be a challenge for him.  First because he has normal hearing, it will be more difficult to get Matthew the services to learn ASL.  And because he hears, to communicate he'll have to translate from spoken English to American Sign Language.  I've heard it compared to hearing in English and then speaking in Japanese.  And, to add to the concerns, with Matthew only having 4 fingers, no matter the configuration (thumb/3 fingers or no thumb/4 fingers), he'll have what is considered a speech impediment when speaking through sign. 

We know that whatever comes Matthew's way, he will persevere and figure it out.  But we still worry and pray that in time he'll talk in spoken word.  Thank you for praying too.